Warning: SPOILERS for Invasion episodes 1-4.
Invasion's aliens haven't been revealed yet, prompting valid queries about the show's looming extraterrestrial threat. Invasion's sweeping narrative portrays the initial days of an alien invasion as seen through many different cultures while also honing in on the emotional toll this terrifying scenario exacts on ordinary people. While the initial Invasion episodes go to great lengths to establish the human characters within its story, the Apple TV+ original show is yet to show a clear look at the alien presence lurking menacingly above Earth.
Invasion's alien encounters as of episode 4, "The King Is Dead," have been fleeting, with the series purposefully refraining from a sustained look at its otherworldly creatures. Sheriff John Bell Tyson (Sam Neill) is stabbed with a mysterious stinger in a dimly-lit cornfield, while Hinata (Rinko Kikuchi) sees a "Wajo" (castle) in space before her death. Other characters have peered slightly longer into the face of the extraterrestrials in Invasion, with Trevante (Shamier Anderson) and his Kandahar platoon briefly facing a tripod-like creature before being jettisoned into the desert.
Invasion not showing the aliens to date acts as a clever foil for the series' character-driven plot. By not making Invasion a creature feature immediately, creators Simon Kinberg and David Weil allow the character-centric and emotionally driven drama to act as the real force behind Invasion's story. In addition, keeping the majority of the alien threat offscreen and simply teasing their involvement ratchets up the series' tension while allowing Invasion to command a taut audience interest.
Invasion's story has always been marketed as an alien invasion "seen through the different perspectives of various people on different continents across the world," so it is little surprise that the Apple TV+ series continuously places decidedly human drama at the fore of its narrative. In this way, Invasion does well not to fall into the trap of scaling to meet its worsening alien threat too quickly, with the show instead taking the time to build deep character relationships and connections instead of immediately diving headfirst into alien-based chaos. Each character's struggle to survive their respectively bleak scenarios demands an emotional audience response that gives Invasion a sense of real stakes at play and makes the series infinitely more watchable as a result.
Of course, another way to ensure continued viewership is to tease and delay big reveals, which is a tactic Invasion is currently employing perfectly. The glimpses of alien life forms granted by Invasion so far have been fleeting, with the three-legged alien attack on a militant soldier just the latest in a long line of blink-and-you'll-miss-it alien moments in the show. By using this slow drip-feed of alien information, Kinberg is harking back to some of the great sci-fi films of all time, such as Alien, which trades graphic and sustained action for a pervading sense of otherworldly dread. While Invasion's aliens will be forced to appear at some point, the series' initial four episodes are a lesson in the concept of using the unseen to maximum effect.